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Each year, Zurich Financial Services, one of the world's largest business and personal insurance companies, writes about $50 billion in premiums. The company's 55,000 employees serve customers in 150 different countries across North America, Europe,

Asia Pacific, and Latin America.

Upon arriving at Zurich Financial Services, Michael Paravicini, the new chief information technology officer, knew he had his work cut out for him. The challenge: how a highly decentralized, locally based staff of 7,700 IT professionals, including 30 CIOs, could better respond to the company's demanding global needs. He says, "We looked at how our delivery model worked, and at how we could achieve a more agile and flexible environment."

Paravicini says that although it was a tough road, he met the challenge, reducing costs by 30 percent through wise oursourcing choices and best practices including IT Infrastructure Library.

Bio

Michael Paravicini is a member of the Group Management Board of Zurich Financial Services (Zurich) and chief information technology officer, overseeing more than 3,000 IT professionals. He joined Zurich in January 2003. Mr. Paravicini started his career as sales engineer with Hewlett-Packard in Zurich in 1985. From 1986 to 1987 he worked in the staff department of Credit Suisse Zurich, International Commercial Banking, providing support for foreign commercial banking activities. Between 1987 and 1998 he worked for Price Waterhouse Management Consultants AG. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Paravicini worked as head of applications development and solutions, divisional head and director with Credit Suisse, Zurich. In March 2000, he became chief information officer and head of global operations at Commerzbank's head office in Frankfurt and, in September 2000, was promoted to member of the board of managing directors.

Resources

IT outsourcing survey reveals strong trend for communications infrastructure outsourcing

Life insurance goes global: Interview with Michael Paravicini by Zurich Financial Services

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Producer
Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host